Anthr4xus

Baba Qiyamət smiled and nodded, "All true, and there is wisdom in trusting your mentors, at least to a point." Surprisingly, he actually winked at Nepungan, who looked momentarily surprised but gave him a small smile and nod in return. "Well, this has been a pleasant talk, Pekaku. I wish you well on your research. I'm sure we will meet again." He started gathering up his stuff again as Nepungan stood. She shook his hand and thanked him for his time, and moved to hold the door open.

Grazia gave a shake of her head. "No. I meant are you skilled in the Time Arcana, or even more specifically in the rote 'Gazing Through The Sands'." Marygay had a look of slightly confused concern, obviously unfamiliar with it herself.

Garrison catches the keys but pauses for a moment to ask, "Went those lawyers from Kingdom Acquisitions? Should be bounce this off Douglass first?"

Sorry, I thought I had responded to this. I think your proposal of the "Improved Weapon Finesse" makes sense to me and impacts the fewest other elements.

The day passes uneventfully. The only thing even worth notice was a single echoing roar of the distant Krayt dragon across the ridgeline. As the sandcrawler approaches the canyon, Ghost sees the low cave mouth of the Woodoo lair. Akkit reports that he can see some movement within via his binocs. The radiation sensor equipment aboard the sandcrawler begins to tick softly and regularly. Akkit says, "We have rad shrouds, but only sized for Jawa. Can you deal with the Woodoo in some way?"

The halfling gives Karlov an odd look and says, "The cellar is just the next gate. There's no telling what all or how many are heading this way." As if to emphasize his words, distant moans could be heard for the first time. He pulls the door of the tavern closed and throws the bolt. "Willa will lead you down to the Haven. It's not here and this is the best way to get to it. Move along, man." He glances to Kain, as if imploring the knight to talk sense to his companion. Down in the cellar, Willa unlocked a gate and she and the elf have pulled open the heavy rusty grate. A brick lined corridor, only six feet in height or so stretched away into the distance. Small points of dim light are set into the brick every 20 feet or so, providing just a strong enough illumination to see where you are putting your feet. The archers lead the way into the brick corridor. Willa says, "Follow Myk and the rest, there are only a couple of turns. We're right behind."

Willa snorts at the suggestion of blocking the gates. "The only way to do that would be to knock down a building or two and shift the stones, but we don't have the manpower to do that while still providing adequate response to threats. I don't know how much time we have, but they wouldn't have called a warning if we had more than a few minutes. Perhaps the Talons' work will slow them down, who knows?" The unintroduced elf in armor nods in agreement with Karlov's statements. Willa leads the way through a couple of similar looking streets, although the buildings get progressively less fully ransacked and destroyed as you are lead away from the wall and deeper into the city. You are joined by half a dozen archers as you move away from the gate. After a few minutes, you are lead into an old and run-down bar that may actually not be any worse off now that it was before the dead walked. Willa stepped behind the bar and raised a trapdoor in the floor. She disappears below, followed by the elf and the archers. The halfling perches on the bar and nods at the group. "Head on down, I'll lock up and follow."

Look spretty good to me, although I don't see a link to her character sheet anywhere.

Having some clues to look for, the pair circle low over the roofs of the town. The clanging of the bellringer was more evident above the roof line. It only took a few minutes to identify a couple fairly large gatherings, only one of which looked to be mostly men and even had a few men with strings of rabbit's feet hung across their shoulders. The group was only a couple of streets over from the house, although Broom got the distinct feeling that they were wrapping up. Even as the crow and frog watch from overhead, a few of the men began walking away at a quick pace. Many of the men were burly, mean-looking types, although a few were whip-thin and sneaky-looking. There were nearly a dozen men, all told, packed into a house that from the outside looked very much like the one the others were at. As the two were about to return to the rest of the group, they caught a brief glance through the front window of what had to be the oldest looking human man they had ever seen. He was seated inside, surrounded by the other men and talking animatedly. He was thin and sour looking, dressed all in black with whispy strands of grey hair hanging lifelessly from his head and a wide brimmed hat was held in a hand. His brilliant blue eyes seemed to spear anyone he looked at. It is only with the greatest luck that Broom happens to disappear over the roof line before he happens to look out of the window.

I don't have a problem with the Tehk'la Blade (which is why I went ahead and grabbed the stat block above) or the eopie mount. I'm thinking (depending on when you get him done) that his entry to the game proper may be having gotten lost in a sudden sandstorm as he was exploring/following a lead, and now wandering the Wastes looking for either a familiar landmark to get back to Kenobi's semi-ruined shelter or some other mark of civilization. Most of your money has gone into your blade and the supplies and such that for the most part was left back at the shelter and bribes and the like that you paid out to find the shelter in the first place.

Tehk'la Blade stats, in case they are needed: If the attack roll made by the wielder of a Tehk'la Blade equals or exceeds both the target's and , the target takes an additional 1d6 points of damage from bleeding at the start of its next turn. treat Tehk'la Blades as instead of as . A Tehk'la Blade requires an to operate. Weapon Type: Size: Tiny Cost: 8,500 Damage: 2d6 Setting: NO Weight: 0.5 Kilograms Type: Slashing and Piercing Availability:

Is this the stat block you are going with for the Nagai? I pulled it from the Saga Edition wiki. Ability Modifiers: All Nagai receive a +2 bonus to both their and , but suffer a -2 penalty to their . Nagai are charismatic and agile, but physically frail. Medium Size: As Medium creatures, Nagai have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. Speed: Nagai have a base speed of 6 squares. Lightning Reflexes: Nagai are fast on their feet and gain a +2 bonus to their . Soothing Voice: A Nagai may choose to reroll any check, but the result of the reroll must be accepted, even if it is worse. Weapon Familiarity: Nagai treat as instead of as . Automatic Languages: All Nagai can speak, read, and write both Basic and Nagaian.

To Willa's apparently surprise the halfling takes a step forward and says, "Some of his people are still here, but none of his family." The armored elf chuckles darkly and says, "Little of anyone's families left. I..." he was interrupted by a short triple note whistle from the rooftops. Willa's eyes go wide and the Halfling attempts to dive into stealthy cover, although his concern for the others in his group seems to significantly undercut his initial movement. Willa quickly pulls herself together and urgently says, "The dead approach, we should seek shelter deeper in. Please come with us." Without actually waiting to see your response the three of them turn and start walking quickly back the way they came. Kain notices the archers he spotted earlier are similarly pulling back from their positions. Harin has kept his eyes on Willa, studying her closely. Her panic and concern seems genuine and her approach seems to be what one might expect of the "face" of a group of hardened survivors in a city lacking their best defenses against the undead.

As his key turns in the lock, a torrent of chaotic power thunders forth and slams through the key, into his hand, up his arm, and into his head. His mind erupts in a cascade of vision, true vision, as the wash of power surges over, through, and into Lucas. Wonders and the sight of the True Face of Reality were revealed to him and in their glory, Lucas' mortal mind quivered and fell to cool, comforting darkness. The first thing Lucas noticed as he came back to himself was that his mouth was dry, and his tongue felt like sandpaper. A faint, steady beeping peeped from somewhere nearby, but his eyelids seemed practically sealed shut. As feeling of his body returns, he can tell that he is laying on something fairly firm, and the air has a odd, chemical hint to it. A faint pressure bore down on his left index finger and something was stuck to his chest. His skin tingled, and he could feel goosebumps retreating from full prominence on his arms and legs. He moved his right hand up and felt something pull oddly at his elbow, but he nevertheless reaches his eyes and rubs. The worst crusty coat of rheum he ever had in his life had glued his eyes shut. Blinking even in the relatively low light of the room, Lucas looked around. It was obvious that he was in a hospital room. A white divider sheet was pulled around the bed he lay in, sequestering himself and the narrow dresser and roughly half a window in a little private bubble. A device was mounted on a pole to the right of his bed, the source of the steady beeping. Lucas could trace wires from it to the pulse/ox clamp on his finger and a heart rate monitor stuck to his chest. Other than the disorientation of suddenly waking up here after whatever that ... vision... was, Lucas was surprised by a faint pinkish halo that seemed to suffuse everything he could see except for himself.

"Well," Baba Qiyamət said slowly, obviously taking a moment to put together exactly how he wanted to respond, "The Abyss did manifest during the fall in the tear left behind when the Celestial Ladder fell. So it would make sense that if something similar to the Celestial Ladder could be reconstructed that it might resecure the Abyss, however how the Celestial Ladder was constructed, if it was at all, was a miracle of the absolute peak of Atlantean power and is knowledge long, long lost. Perhaps that would be something worth some research? But who would have time?" Nepungan looks from Baba Qiyamət to Pekaku and back again, a half-smile on her lips.

So sorry for the lag everyone. I got busy IRL and then had a long fight with writer's block on many fronts. Just fighting through that all now and will have an update posted in the next day or two.

Garrison said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure Spence has his home phone records. He should be able to pull out any matches." A quick trip to Spencer's desk and an even quicker spreadsheet lookup revealed that there were two calls to Professor Yargee's home number from numbers of interest. The first were two calls nearly a week before the murder from none other than Kingdom Acquisitions. And then of particular note for Emma was a single call the day of the private patron exhibit from a private number registered to Scepter Mutual Management, the company that pays Sebastian Goldwater's rent.

Grazia accepted Margay's hug with stern grace and met Ehnola's nod with a steady gaze. As Ehnola started to eat her toast, Grazia remained standing, settling her hands on the back of the chair at the head of the table. "I have taken time to investigate the stone you stole. I believe that it may be soul stone. I think it is likely that the ransacking of your home was not a coincidence. Have you skills in reading the past of a place?" The old woman asked.

Sorry for the delay in responses everyone. I should have something up for everyone by tomorrow evening at the lastest.

Could you make a new thread for your new character? It helps me when I need to check things.

Aosa spends some time working to ingratiate herself with the Oklet clan crew. It takes several hours, and while none of her new "friends" can give her direct access to the Hutts or anything along those lines, she is able to tease out the names of several trade contacts in Bestine, Arnthout, Mos Shuuta and WayFar. There can be no guarantees on the part of a third party, but should they find themselves in any of those communities, she at least knows what names to drop and where to drop them. She also does an excellent job of just building goodwill and comraderie with much of the clan. Ghost finds Akkit, Bet and the rest of the "bridge crew" up in the main pilot station of the sandcrawler. She is welcomed politely and given that the path around the ridge mesa to the appropriate canyon was fairly straight forward and nothing of too much note was on the nearby scanners, Akkit was happy to gossip about the clans. He did not have very recent updates from Clan Kekit, although he had heard they had found some great fortune a little over a year ago, and spent much of that in fielding another sandcrawler to take over an old abandoned scavenge route. Last he had heard Bruha was doing well, although getting quite old by this point. His more interesting information was in the planned routes of the other Clans that were moving towards the gathering at Omlaut. Both Akkit and Bet were particularly excited about the meeting as they both had daughters they were hoping to find partners for. Murmurs among the rest of the bridge crew also hinted at a great interest in the possibilities of intra-clan mingling. As Sophic is trying to be useful and find good things to work on, Heshiman takes a private moment to speak with her. "{Basic}Hey, Just so someone else knows. I've been trying to make sure we have some leverage if we need it in later negotiations. I've been refining their fuelling mixes and some of their control software. I've been able to eke out an almost 5% gain in efficiency overall, but more importantly I was able to implant a small virus. One command phrase on the right frequency and the primary motivator goes into a burnout overcharge. Not saying we will want it, but if we need it, I know you out of everyone would value knowing it's there.{/Basic}" OOC For her work with the crew Aosa has a standing +2 circumstance bonus on rolls related with trying to establish contacts in the listed settlements. Between her and Ghost's work, you also all get a +1 circumstance bonus on rolls related with trying to persuade or negotiate with clan Oklet.

Willa nodded at Kain's words. "There is wisdom in keeping weapons at the ready. You never know when something might come lurching out at you." When you mention Ardir, there is a momentary shift in the expression of the halfling only to fade into something crestfallen when his loss to the mists is added. Willa makes a quick gesture with one hand and Kain sees the archers hidden on the roofs lower their weapons. They don't go so far as to unnock their bows, but they are not aiming at anyone and their gaze drifts out over the wall to the far tree lines. She says, "It is a shame to hear about Ardir. What do you seek here?" Karlov could tell that these people were not so much duplicitous as desperate and afraid. These were not actions of people trying to get the jump on anyone, but expecting to be set upon at any moment. He could also read that there was definitely some personal connection felt by the halfling at the news about Ardir. Karlov was fairly confident that there was a close relationship there. He also noticed that Willa also seemed pained at the news, although she hid it masterfullyDC17 Insight to catch this if anyone else cares to try..

Kain and Harin's loud proclamations echo through the burned and ransacked nearby buildings and bounced off the town wall. A feminine voice called out from the same direction that Kain saw the dog disappear, "If you are willing to talk, we will talk." After a moment, three figures come around the corner of the building. All three have their hands empty and held out slightly from their sides, clearly unarmed, although they each have swords and other obvious weapons near-to-hand. They come to a stop at the intersection, roughly sixty or seventy feet away. Although they are are only a step our two apart, they are surprisingly different. The center figure is a female human, wearing scale mail and with her dark brown hair pulled back and tucked into her armor. She stands just short of six feet tall and carries a long sword at her side, a short rod hanging from her belt, and a shield on her back. She is out of the range of Haakon's spell, but he knows an arcane focus when he sees one. Her boots and armor are obviously well-worn and regularly maintained. The humanoid to her right is a male halfling barely half her height, wearing leather armor, two short swords and a bandolier of throwing daggers across his barrel-like chest. His nut-brown skin was almost the same color as his curly brown hair. His cleft lip twisted in an almost leering smile, revealing yellowing and rotten teeth. The figure on the right is a willowy and pallid elf, wearing chain mail with a heavy and well-used mace hanging at his side. A helm covers his head, although his silvery hair and pointed ears are still obvious. An equally obvious necklace hangs outside of his armor, a sprig of belladona on a silver kite shield. A similar motif is worked into the shield on his back, although deep gouges from various blocked attacks have heavily defaced the surface of the full-sized shield. The central woman take a step forward and says, "If you are living and not one of Drakov's goons, we would parlay with you. You can call me Willa. What brings you to Silbervas?" It is clear this is the same voice that called out before they showed themselves. Kain notices a faint creaking from the roofs in that direction can notes the tell-tale signs of archers moving into good shooting positions. They are remarkably well hidden and careful in the their movements, but as Kain catches the whiff of potential battle his training and senses come alive in anticipation. OOC Spotting the archers moving from observation posts to covering fire spots is the last Kain's Nat 20 will get you. A DC 15 Religion check (DC10 if a Ravenloft native) will recognize the symbol of Ezra, God of the Mists, as the holy symbol being worn by the elf.

The churning chaos around him made it hard to focus and control himself, yet even with that Lucas held on to his humor and himself with a firm grip. It was impossible to tell how long it took, but piece by piece he built his will into a shining golden key that stretched through the flexing distance between himself and lock on the great tower. With a gasp the key turned and suddenly the seizing tumult around him vanished, to be replaced by a calm, cool stone antechamber. A golden lock bearing his name was set in the stone wall before him. Similar golden locks were set in the wall around, yet the names on them were blurred and illegible. Lucas's focus was drawn to HIS lock again, and the golden key in his hands was practically burning his fingers.

"I would say that the Abyss itself is not chaotic, as non-existance by definition must be quite empty and still. It is the interplay of that nothingness with the somethingness of the Fallen World that causes chaos. I agree that it could be a proper view to see the Abyss as a flaw in the Tapestry, but given that the Tapestry is merely a metaphor for the totality of reality, how could one cause nothingness to cease when you only have somethingness to work with to do so?" he asks.